The present invention relates to digital data processors, and, more particularly concerns improved means for storage addressing.
Physically small microprocessors are increasingly called upon to provide programmable functions (sometimes called "intelligence") within data processing terminal equipment, and within other electronic equipment as well. Processors for such functions should not be thought of as merely scaled-down and slower versions of traditional computers; in some respects, microprocessors should even surpass their older brothers in speed and capability. One area of this kind pertains to transferring blocks of data words to and from a storage unit. Many current and future uses of microprocessors require both versatility and efficiency in operations such as moving multiple adjacent words in storage from, say, an input buffer to an output buffer, and such as performing arithmetic or logic operations upon corresponding data words of blocks in different storage areas. Although previous processor configurations have recognized these factors, solutions have been piecemeal and directed toward specific ad hoc problem areas, with little concern for a unified approach.